Paranoia, prudence, or love? Manual typewriters are making a comeback

Today’s world is leaky. Your email, your phone, your Facebook posts. Anyone can spy on you. But not if you use a typewriter. That’s why Germany recently announced it’s considering using manual typewriters to produce sensitive documents.

Robert Hinson lives in the past. Wrong … make that “earns his living off the past.”

Hinson, who owns Alan Business Machines, has hundreds of manual and electric typewriters in his suburban West Palm Beach store. The oldest was made in 1890. He opened 22 years ago in that location and is doing well, he says.

So who wants a typewriter in this day of computers, the Internet and phones with text messaging?

As it turns out, “a variety of people,” Hinson explains. “A lot are in the arts — musicians, writers, creative thinkers. And they actually type on them.”

One of his clients, a writer, bought a manual typewriter because, some time before, he had stayed in the mountains with Buddhist monks. The monastery had no electricity, and all he had was his computer.

Hinson recalls, “He told me, ‘About the time my creative juices started flowing, my battery would die. I couldn’t write until I traipsed down the mountain to civilization to recharge it.’”

This being South Florida, another group of people frequently use typewriters, too, according to Hinson: “I deal a lot with the elderly. Their handwriting is bad, so a typewriter is beneficial. Many can’t use computers. A typewriter is their lifeline to their family.”

Governments taking note

Even some powerful governments have a new attitude toward the humble typewriter, first patented in 1714 in England.

For example, in Berlin recently, the head of the German government’s investigation into allegations that the U.S. eavesdropped on Chancellor Angela Merkel’s mobile phone spoke to reporters. Patrick Sensburg said Germany is considering stopping leaks by using old-fashioned, non-electric typewriters when producing sensitive documents.

Germany isn’t the first country to “downgrade.” In 2013, according to news reports, some Russian security agents began opting for typewriters and paper, rather than using disks or hard drives for storage, for the same reason.

Consumers have responded as well, especially in Europe. The German typewriter manufacturer Olympia expects its sales to hit a 20-year high in 2014, surpassing 10,000. That’s about double 2013’s figures.

Advantages of old technology

What are some of the benefits of using a typewriter, especially a manual one? The Rev. William Burton, 61, of St. Vincent de Paul Regional Seminary in Boynton Beach, should know. He owns 15.

“They were made to last forever, unlike computers and cellphones,” he says. “There’s almost no maintenance, and they work whether there’s electricity or not. I still have my typewriter from college, and it works perfectly.”

He has even corresponded with actor Tom Hanks, who has an extensive collection of vintage typewriters. “Tom helped me find a typewriter. I wouldn’t call us ‘pen pals,’ but we’ve corresponded,” Burton says.

The early days

No drawings exist of the earliest typewriters. Fortunately, drawings and photos of 1870s and later versions do, and they provide us with a record of how the machines looked and functioned — primitive though they were by today’s standards. Almost all used a key to move a typebar that then created a letter, number or symbol.

Then, in 1961, a revolutionary new machine hit the market.

On the IBM Selectric, a typeball rotated and pivoted to the correct position before striking, thus eliminating typebar jamming. In addition, the new electric typewriter had no moving carriage. Instead, the paper roller remained stationary, while the typeball and ribbon moved across the page as one unit.

The ball carrier moved back and forth courtesy of two taut, thin, narrow metal tapes. One caused the typeball to tilt; the other made it rotate.

But an odd thing happened when the Palm Beach County School District began buying new IBM Selectrics for typing classes: Alan Business Machines owner Hinson says he saw business increase. “Some kids would cut through the tapes to disable the machine so they wouldn’t have to type.”

Students a few decades back aren’t the only ones who had a problem with typewriters. So did one of America’s most famous writers, Mark Twain, who is reputed to be the first novelist to use one. He initially liked his new machine.

Twain’s ‘little joker’

In 1875, Twain wrote to his brother, “I am trying to get the hang of this newfangled writing machine, but am not making a shining success of it. … The machine has several virtues. … It piles an awful stack of words on one page. It don’t muss things or scatter ink blots around. Of course it saves paper.”

Yet, later that same year, he wrote to Remington, the machine’s manufacturer: “I have entirely stopped using the Typewriter. … I never could write … to anybody without receiving a request by return mail that I would not only describe the machine, but state what progress (I’ve made) in the use of it, etc., etc. I don’t like to write letters, so I don’t want people to know I own this curiosity-breeding little joker.”

The Rev. Burton, who teaches at the St. Vincent de Paul Regional Seminary, had a different problem when he switched from using his manual, have-to-strike-the-keys-hard typewriter (the one he had in college) to using a computer.

“I never used an electric typewriter; they require much less effort when striking the keys. Even to this day, people tell me, ‘You really pound on those (computer) keys!’” he says.

Most of the time, though, Burton uses his old manual standbys. And what is he using them for? “I type letters on them. I’m keeping the post office in business.”